Author Archives: mj

Hallig Gröde – Sunset 1

Hallig Gröde - Sunset 1

Hallig Gröde - Sunset 1

Day tourists heading back to their ship, the Hauke Haien, while the sun is setting.

After a longer break, back to the Hallig Gröde images. Don’t worry, there are many more slide films waiting in the queue for scanning. ;-) It’s just that my new toy requires some attention, too.

Cologne City – Weltstadthaus

Cologne City - Weltstadthaus

Cologne City - Weltstadthaus

View of the Peek & Cloppenburg branch in Cologne, still under construction.

After the short spell of snow at the end of December last year Winter in Cologne is more like spring time and lured us into the city. This provided a good opportunity to finally get the “Weltstadthaus” before my lens. The building of the Italian star architect Renzo Piano was a construction ruin with no progress for more than two years. Only in late summer 2004, the glass dome was finished.

Cologne – Isen Castle – Snow 4

Cologne - Isen Castle - Snow 4

Cologne - Isen Castle - Snow 4

Fourth image of the “Cologne Snow” mini series. Believe it or not, yesterday we had quite a spell of snow in Cologne, so I took the opportunity to walk my new EOS 20D. ;-)

For those of you not familiar with the landscape, the area near the Rhine at Cologne and Bonn has likely the mildest climate in Germany during winter time. We get very little snow at all, and with almost total certainty none at Christmas. So this scenery is somewhat special, and I tried to catch some of the spirit. The image above and the others were taken around the Isen Castle in Cologne, Holweide and on my way back home. See the other images: [1] [2] [3] [4]

Hallig Gröde – Glasswort

Hallig Gröde - Glasswort

Hallig Gröde - Glasswort

Averting one’s gaze from the horizon, interesting details can be found on the ground. Such as these glasswort plants.

Glasswort (salicornia europaea) can be found in abundance in most of the aggradation zones on Gröde, most of them deeply red colored due to the accumulated salt in late summer and autumn. This plant, found in the excavated hole just north of the Knudswarft, shows the whole range of glasswort colors from fresh green over yellow to red.

Hallig Gröde – Barn

Hallig Gröde - Barn

Hallig Gröde - Barn

Rural idyll, the upper part of the barn belonging to the house shown on the previous image.

Animals (except dogs ;-) are not to be found in each of the four barns belonging to the houses on the Knudtswarft. Cattle are only roaming the holm during the summertime, as guests too. Dairy farming was given up some time ago, the brent geese are eating too much of the gras during their visit in early spring.